The Pausing American Loyalist

To sign, or not to sign? 
That is the question, 
Whether 'twere better for an honest man 
To sign, and so be safe; or to resolve, 
Betide what will,against associations, 
And, by retreating, shun them. 

To fly -- I reck Not where: 
And, by that flight, to escape 
Feathers and tar, and thousand other ills 
That loyalty is heir to: 
'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. 
To fly -- to want-- 

To want? Perchance to starve: 
Ay, there's the rub! 
For, in that chance of want, what ills may come 
To patriot rage, when I have left my all-- 
Must give me pause: 
--There's the respect 

That makes us trim, and bow to men we hate.
For, who would bear th' indignities o' th' times,
Congress decrees, and wild convention plans, 
The laws controll'd, and inj'ries unredressed, 
The insolence of knaves, and thousand wrongs 
Which patient liege men from vile rebels take,
When he, sans doubt, might certain safety find, 
Only by flying? 

Who would bend to fools, 
And truckle thus to mad, mob-chosen upstarts, 
But that the dread of something after flight
(In that blest country, where, yet, no moneyless 
Poor wight can live) puzzles the will, 
And makes ten thousands rather sign-- and eat.

Than fly -- to starve on loyalty.-- 
Thus, dread of want makes rebels of us all: 
And thus the native hue of loyalty 
Is sicklied o'er with a pale cast of trimming; 
And enterprises of great pith and virtue, 
But unsupported, turn their streams away, 
And never come to action.